Blink (character)
Blink | |
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Earth-295 | |
Team affiliations | X-Men (AoA) Exiles |
Abilities |
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Blink (Clarice Ferguson) is a
A
Publication history
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2015) |
Created by writer
An unstable mutant with the ability to teleport, Blink was one of the mutants captured by the Phalanx during the 1994 X-Universe crossover event Phalanx Covenant. In print, the character died within a month of her first appearance. The primary-universe version of Blink returned to publication in 2009.[1]
Lobdell and Madureira redefined Blink as a more confident and assertive character in the
Fictional character biography
Blink was first introduced in the "
Early years
In the
Clarice Ferguson was born in Cartusia,
Clarice was a child when Apocalypse took over Miami. Blink was discovered by Apocalypse's
In the 2000 Blink limited series, it is revealed in flashback that the mutant villain
Sabretooth and
Blink grows into adulthood with the X-Men. She is impulsive and not always willing to follow orders, but becomes an important X-Man. In a limited series which focused uniquely on her character, Blink suffers partial amnesia and was briefly transported into the Negative Zone, where she is romantically involved with the amnesiac Annihilus, although he forces her to leave when he begins to transform back into his original form.
Eventually, the X-Men encountered the time travelling X-Man
Miniseries
Blink had her own four-part miniseries within the setup of the Age of Apocalypse storyline. In it, she has a falling out with Magneto and travels to the Negative Zone to seek aid in defeating Apocalypse but, due to the travel, loses her memory. She meets a man named Ahmyor who turns out to be the leader of a freedom force dedicated in removing Blastaar from the throne of the Negative Zone. Blink, not knowing who she is or where she came from, joins this force and, in turn, falls in love with Ahmyor- who, they both later learn, is a previous stage of Annihilus, who regressed to this point in his life after his last confrontation with Blastaar and lost his memories. He was the one who Blastaar took the throne from. Blink regains her memory and manages to save Annihilus before teleporting back to her own world to the X-Men who were looking for her.
In a flashback in this series, it is revealed that Blink was once cellmates with the AoA version of Illyana before being rescued by Weapon-X and Sabretooth, and that both of them were tortured regularly by the Sugarman, who was their jailer at the time.
Exiles
Blink was later on mysteriously transported to a strange desert plateau, where she met a group of other mutants from various realities who had been unstuck in time. A cosmic monitor called the Timebroker explained that each had become "unhinged" from reality, and their new mission was to visit various parallel worlds and "correct wrongs". While the other Exiles would each be returned to their own realities, but altered in some horrible way as a result of being unhinged, if they failed to correct things, Blink was told that she would cease to exist.
Blink became the leader of this group of Exiles – her teammates reasoning that she was more removed from the realities that they were familiar with and would therefore be better equipped emotionally to make whatever judgement calls might be needed if they were forced to fight former allies-, and formed a relationship with her teammate Mimic. They went to many worlds, fighting the Hulk, Galactus, Weapon X, Mojo, and the Vi-Locks among other enemies. On the world where a mutated strain combining the Legacy Virus and the Techno-organic virus was taking over, Blink was infected by it. She was later cured by the intervention of the Norse gods. The Exiles were celebrating when the Timebroker appears, saying that Blink was going home. Blink is teleported away, replaced by Magik.
However, the Timebroker lied and instead of sending her to her home dimension, she was
She was later rescued and came back to the Exiles after
Trying to throw off the team dynamic, the Timebroker introduced Sabretooth onto the team. This caused Clarice to doubt her leadership abilities and defer to Sabretooth's advice, a fact that Mimic was not happy about. The Timebroker gave Blink a mission in which she was instructed to kill Mimic soon after, but she refused. When she did, the Tallus shifted from her arm to Sabretooth's, making him the de facto leader.
The Timebroker then tried to disrupt the team by introducing
As the events of the
Swearing revenge, the Exiles tracked Proteus down to the Future Imperfect reality, but were unable to prevent the madman from taking another life. This time Proteus took the body of Morph, but with Blink's quick thinking she was able to trap Proteus in Morph's body by blinking a behavior modification crown onto his head, causing him to believe he really is Morph. With the hunt for Proteus at an end, Blink remained an Exile to continue fixing damaged realities. She and the other Exiles returned all former members of the Exiles and Weapon X that were trapped in the Stasis Gallery to their home realities, dead or alive. Blink was going to bury Mimic in the Panoptichron desert until Power Princess suggested that she check with Mimic's family on burial wishes. Blink returned Mimic to his home reality for burial, and spent some time with his version of the X-Men, almost accepting their wish for her to join their team.
After a mission where the Exiles had to save Galactus, Blink once more called Sabretooth 'Mister Creed'. Blink later left the team to take a break with Nocturne and Thunderbird on Heather's Earth. Blink is called back into action when the New Exiles (minus Morph and Psylocke) are left inoperable after being immersed within the Crystal Palace. Morph summons her, Nocturne, and Heather to help create a new team of Exiles: Beast, Forge, Polaris, Panther, and the Witch. Blink is put in charge of this new team, and pretends to be new just like the others. However, she is found out at the end of their first mission.[3]
Blink is starred in Saladin Ahmed's cancelled Exiles, which launched in 2018.
Characteristics
Ancestry
In the
Slade showed up still alive but elderly in an issue of New Excalibur and leading a new Clan Akkaba along with Ozymandias.
Appearance
Blink also has lilac skin, dark magenta hair, pointed ears and pupil-less green eyes (this was a change in Exiles: both Ultimate Marvel and Age of Apocalypse Blink has white eyes with a blue sheen). She also has pink marks across her face: these are not decorations or tattoos, and were present from birth.
Powers and abilities
Blink can teleport herself and large masses, including sizable groups of people.
Reception
Accolades
- In 2014, BuzzFeed ranked Blink 46th in their "95 X-Men Members Ranked From Worst To Best" list.[5]
- In 2014, Entertainment Weekly ranked Blink 10th in their "Let's rank every X-Man ever" list.[6]
- In 2017, Screen Rant ranked Blink 11th in their "15 Most Powerful Teleporting Superheroes" list.[2]
- In 2020, Scary Mommy included Blink in their "Looking For A Role Model? These 195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic" list.[7]
- In 2020, CBR.com ranked Blink 9th in their "10 Most Powerful Teleporters In The Marvel Universe" list.[8]
Other versions
Earth-616
Blink (Earth-616) | |
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The Uncanny X-Men #317 (October 1994) | |
Created by | Scott Lobdell (writer) Joe Madureira (artist) |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Clarice Ferguson |
Species | Human mutant |
Team affiliations | |
Partnerships | Selene |
Abilities |
|
In the primary
When
"Necrosha"
Prior to the events of "
Blink visits Selene's birthplace in Europe before traveling to Rome and New York where they slaughter the New York branch of the Hellfire Club. After they are done, she teleports Selene's forces to Utopia where they attack the X-Men before returning to Selene, where they then journey to Genosha.[14]
When Selene dispatches her Inner Circle to retrieve the mystical knife necessary to complete her ritual, Blink teleports them onto Utopia. In the confrontation, she is recognised by Emma Frost. During the fight, Blink and
After finding the knife, Blink teleports to Genosha with a captured
When Selene began absorbing the many souls around her, she commands her minions to get her more souls to which Blink teleports most of the resurrected mutants and former-mutants to Genosha for Selene to absorb.[17]
During the final fight, Blink evades
To Serve and Protect
Sometime after the events of Necrosha, Emma Frost and a small team of X-Men consisting of Blindfold, Pixie, Husk, Warpath and former Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange track Blink down in Eastern Europe where she's attempting to resurrect Selene. After a brief battle, Blindfold predicts Blink is going to commit suicide but is stopped by Emma who manages to help her realize Selene lied to her. Doctor Strange steps in and casts a spell which successfully purges her of Selene's corrupting influence. Feeling remorse and guilt over killing for Selene, Blink breaks down and Emma tries to reassure her it wasn't her fault and offers to be there for her as well a place with the X-Men. Overwhelmed with emotion, Blink teleports off claiming she can't and is last seen looking out into the sunrise in San Francisco.[18]
New Mutants
Following the Schism event, Cyclops commissions the
Blink later visits the New Mutants who were depressed over their recent mission to Paradise Island. Learning that it's Warlocks birthday, she teleports the team to Madripoor to celebrate.[23] She later joins the team during their final mission against True Friend, an evil future version of Cypher.[24] She is last seen attending a house party at the New Mutants residence in San Francisco where she assists in helping take down Tyro, Warlock's adopted charge.[25]
Blink returned as a resident in New Tian, in "
What If?
An alternate version of this Blink appears in What If? vol. 2 #75. In this story, Blink survives, but the other young mutants die in her place. Blink ends up in the realm of the cosmic entity known as the In-Betweener, and seems to kill him in battle. Blink uses her newfound reality-warping powers to "improve" the world, and among other things causes human/mutant conflict to end. When she attempts to save the members of Generation X from their deaths, the resulting paradox (if Generation X survived, then Blink could never gain her new powers in the first place) caused reality itself to begin disintegrating. Ultimately, Blink undid all the changes she had made, and the In-Betweener revealed that he had not died at all. He then took Blink on as his apprentice, training her in the proper use of her new powers as a new In-Betweener.[26]
Ultimate Marvel
The
In other media
Television
- An alternate timeline incarnation of Blink makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the X-Men: The Animated Series two-part episode "One Man's Worth" as a member of a mutant resistance movement.
- Blink makes non-speaking appearances in Acolytes.
- Clarice Fong / Blink appears in John Proudstar.[29]
Film
Clarice Fong / Blink appears in X-Men: Days of Future Past, portrayed by Fan Bingbing.[30] This version is a member of a future incarnation of the X-Men from the year 2023.
Video games
Blink appears in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, voiced by Tara Strong.
References
- ^ Necrosha: The Gathering #1. Marvel Comics.
- ^ a b Gumeny, Eirik (2017-02-21). "The 15 Most Powerful Teleporting Superheroes". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
- ^ Exiles vol. 2 #1-6
- ^ "Blink's Marvel Comics History Connects 'The Gifted' To The Broader Mutant Universe". Bustle. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
- ^ Perpetua, Matthew (28 January 2014). "95 X-Men Members Ranked From Worst To Best". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
- ^ June 09, Darren Franich Updated; EDT, 2022 at 12:31 PM. "Let's rank every X-Man ever". EW.com. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Looking For A Role Model? These 195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic". Scary Mommy. 29 November 2021. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
- ^ Anderson, Jack (2020-04-21). "The 10 Most Powerful Teleporters In The Marvel Universe, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
- ^ The Uncanny X-Men #317
- ^ X-Men #37
- ^ Generation X #1
- ^ The Incredible Hercules #129
- ^ X-Necrosha: The Gathering One-Shot #1
- ^ X-Necrosha One-Shot #1
- ^ X-Force #23
- ^ X-Force #24
- ^ a b X-Force #25
- ^ X-Men: To Serve and Protect #3
- ^ New Mutants vol. 3 #33
- ^ New Mutants vol. 3 #34
- ^ New Mutants vol. 3 #35
- ^ New Mutants vol. 3 #36
- ^ New Mutants vol. 3 #41
- ^ New Mutants vol. 3 #44-49
- ^ New Mutants vol. 3 #50
- ^ What If? vol. 2 #75
- ^ Ultimate X-Men #43
- ^ Ultimate X-Men #56
- ^ Wagmeister, Elizabeth (February 22, 2017). "Jamie Chung to Play Blink in Fox's Marvel Pilot From Bryan Singer" Archived 2017-02-23 at the Wayback Machine. Variety.
- ^ Kit, Borys (March 15, 2013). "Chinese Actress Tapped for 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 18, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
External links
- Blink at Marvel.com
- AoA Blink at Marvel.com
- Blink at Marvel Wiki
- UncannyXmen.net Character Profile on Blink
- UncannyXmen.net Spotlight on Blink (Exiles/AoA)